Sofa-bedstead



UNITED TATES PATENT DFIFICE.

ALFRED WALKER, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.

SOFA-BEDSTEAD.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 9,083, dated June 29, 1852.

To all whom fit may concern:

Be it known that I, ALFRED VALKER, ot the town and county of New Haven, State of Connecticut, have invented a new and Improved Method of Constructing Sota- Beds; and I do hereby declare that the tollowing is a full and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, which constitute a part of these speciiications.

The seat of my sofa bed constitutes one half of the bed, and an upholstered frame lying below it constitutes the other half of the bed. To distinguish them, I designate the upper part A the seat, and the lower part B the bed. The bed is immovably connected with the back and ends of the sofa.

Thus tar my sofa bed resembles other sofa beds now in use.

When my sofa-bed is to be used as a bed it is opened by drawing the seat forward until the back edge of it clears the front edge of the bed below, and is then let down to a level with the bed. The seat when being drawn forward is guided by the inside of the ends C of the sofa, against which it slides. The downward and upward motions of the seat are guided by metallic bearings D, which are secured to the ends ot the seat, and project back of the seat about two inches, and then turn outward at a right angle about one inch, entering and sliding in grooves E, prepared for them in the inside ot the ends of the sofa. Vhen the seat is let down to a level with the bed, the backside of it is supported by the bearings resting at the bottom of the grooves. The front side of the seat is suported by two permanent legs F. When the sofa bed is closed these legs fit into a recess made for them in the front corners of the bed, and are hid from view by the front G of the sofa. The form of the grooves as shown by the drawing is elliptical, which form answers the important purposes, first, of preventing the seat from falling too heavily when it is lowered, and secondly, of facilitating the raising of the seat, which is done by taking hold of a concealed strap secured at the middle of the back edge of the .seat and raising the seat up until the bearings reach the upper end of the elliptical grooves, then by a slight pressure backward the bearings reach upon the horizontal grooves, then raising the front of the seat to a level, the seat is easily slid back to its place as a sofa. The front is either' made fast upon the legs and frame of the seat or hung with hinges to the lower Jfront edge of the frame of the bed in order that it may be turned down and permit the seat and the bed to come closely together when used as a bed.

In the lower part of the back of my sofa bed there is a long narrow opening I-I, through which the clothes may be drawn.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- The manner of guiding the seat when it is raised and lowered, and of connecting the seat and bed when extended, by means of the metallic bearings D, and the grooves E, which they traverse when the seat is raised and lowered.

ALFRED WALKER. Witnesses VILLIAM H. WAY, Ror, L, BASSETT, 

